An inside look at the massive efforts needed to keep the Navy's PT Boats in fighting trim. From the stories of Repair Training Units, Bases, FEMU barges, and tenders, the reader will get a real understanding of the men who made up these specialized units. Almost two hundred rarely seen photographs selected by Frank J. Andruss Sr, curator of the acclaimed Mosquito Fleet Exhibit. Photographs and ship histories of every PT tender that operated in World War II. Numerous photographs of forward bases in the Solomons, New Guinea, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, the Mediterranean, and England. Detailed accounts of personnel, facilities, and curriculum at the Repair Training Units. An indispensable and unique source for anyone interested in the history of U.S. patrol torpedo boats in World War II.

This book is the first comprehensive history of an important, but mostly overlooked, element of the World War II Patrol Torpedo (PT) boats: the Motor Torpedo Boat Squadrons Training Center (MTBSTC) in Melville, Rhode Island. While not every sailor who served on PT boats went through the training at MTBSTC, every PT sailor was affected by what went on there. The MTBSTC created the PT boats' operational policies and tactics, as well as weapons and equipment experimentation and development. Even the orders the men received for their PT boat assignment were dictated by the MTBSTC. Most of the books written about PT boats have only a passing reference to the MTBSTC. This lack of detailed information on the Training Center has left a large hole in the overall printed history of PT boats. This book fills that gap. This book documents the Training Center from its beginnings when the land was undeveloped swampland, through its growing pains during construction and expansion during the war. It traces the problems of developing a training curriculum from scratch, the struggles to keep the training current, up through the point when the training reached its peak of proficiency just as the war ended. It provides insight into what life was like for the sailors that spent two to three months going through the training program and of those who were stationed at the Training Center as instructors or staff personnel. This book also details the Training Center's post-war career and its current development as a thriving marina and boat building enterprise. This book is culled from the MTBSTC's wartime correspondence files and other deck logs, published and unpublished books, articles, and reports; and interviews with PT boat veterans who underwent the training at the MTBSTC. It is lavishly illustrated with archival, private, and public photographs, most of which have never been published before. This book completes the written history of the PT boats in World War II.

In 1945 U.S. Navy photographer Nick Scutti found himself in the Florida Keys on the set of the classic World War II drama They Were Expendable, taking candid shots of director John Ford, stars Robert Montgomery and John Wayne and the supporting cast and crew. Scutti's never before published collection of fully captioned photos provides a unique chronicle of the 30-day location shoot, revealing details of the making of the film and in some instances disproving certain statements made by MGM publicity and Ford himself. Brief biographies are included of the stars of the film and of the men the film was based upon.

The Mosquito Fleet, a classical and rare book that has been considered essential throughout human history, so that this work is never forgotten, we at Alpha Editions have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies of their original work and hence the text is clear and readable.

A memoir of heroism, comradeship, danger, and laughter aboard a Vietnam patrol craft, as a small crew grew into a seasoned combat team. Includes photos. During the Vietnam War, 3500 officers and men served in the Swift Boat program in a fleet of 130 boats with no armor plating. The boats patrolled the coast and rivers of South Vietnam, facing deadly combat, intense lightning firefights, storms, and many hidden dangers. This action-packed account by the Officer in Charge of PCF 76 makes you part of the Swift Boat crew. The six-man crew of PCF 76 was made up of volunteers from all over the United States, eager to serve their country in a unique type of duty not seen since the PT boats of WWII. This inexperienced and disparate group of men would meld into a team that formed an unbreakable lifelong bond. After training, they were plunged into a twelve-month tour of duty. Combat took place in the closest confines imaginable, where the enemy could be hidden behind a passing sand dune or a single sniper could be concealed in an onshore bunker. In many cases, the rivers became so narrow there was barely room to maneuver or turn around. The only way out might be into a deadly ambush. This is not a Vietnam memoir filled with political discussions or apologies. It simply tells the stories of these young, valiant sailors with humor and heartfelt emotion—in a suspenseful, surprising book that pays tribute to these sailors who, upon returning home, asked little of their country and received less.